On Sunday I spent some time canvassing for PCEI – The Portland Clean Energy Initiative. Confession–I did it because Anissa, who is staffing this for 350PDX, nagged me and all the other Board members until we said yes.

But I’m telling you about it because I enjoyed it SO muchthat I want to give you the opportunity to enjoy yourselves too!

“The Portland Clean Energy Initiative is the most important ballot measure in the country right now.” – Van Jones.

Don’t take it from us, take it from national green energy leader, activist, and author Van Jones, who spoke at an event in Portland last week in front of hundreds of people and couldn’t stop raving about our work on the Portland Clean Energy Initiative, Measure 26-201.

Why? Because this measure offers an opportunity to say YES amidst a sea of bad policies that we fight on a daily basis. YES to local climate action. YES to billionaire retail corporations paying their fair share toward a clean energy future. YES to job training in the renewable energy field. YES to green infrastructure such as cooling tree canopies, local sustainable food and innovative projects that reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. YES to solutions coming straight from our communities. YES to Measure 26-201!

Today is 49 days until Election Day, and 29 days until ballots begin to hit mailboxes. Here’s your weekly campaign update on how to get involved with this historic initiative.

(PORTLAND, OR) – The broad network of groups backing the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Initiative, known as the “Portland Clean Energy Fund,” held a press conference today outside Portland City Hall to announce they had collected over 60,000 signatures for the initiative in under two months. With support from hundreds of volunteers, the Portland Clean Energy Fund collected 25,000 more signatures than needed to qualify for the November election. The large number of signatures gathered exceeded the campaign’s goals and reflects the strong level of support for the Portland Clean Energy Fund at a time when measures to promote renewable energy are being rolled back at the federal level. Read more

In the absence of meaningful action at the federal level, numerous state and local communities are stepping up to the plate to address climate change. The Portland Clean Energy Fund is one example of this important work. The Portland Clean Energy Fund ballot initiative is currently in the signature gathering phase to make the November 2018 ballot. What would this fund do and how would it be funded?Read more

The Portland ballot measure you’ve heard so much about has officially been filed!

350PDX and our partners have been working for over two years on a Portland Ballot Initiative to promote green jobs and homes that internally has been known as PJET (Portland Just Energy Transition). We are pleased to be working alongside Portland’s NAACP chapter, Verde, the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), APANO, and Oregon Sierra Club. As of late January, the Initiative has been filed with the city and the official ballot title will be confirmed by early March!

When I was growing up in a beautiful but drafty wooden A-frame farmhouse, the way my parents kept our heating bills low was simple, if unpleasant; in the winter months, the living room and dining room became dispensable. Those rooms had arched entry ways instead of doors, so we stapled thick plastic sheets over those open spaces. By abandoning these rooms, we kept the heat from our floor furnace trapped in the kitchen and the two bedrooms adjacent to it. For maybe four months of the year, we lived in half our house. Sometimes I would wriggle around the edge of the semi-opaque plastic to sneak a visit to the once familiar, now alien landscape of the living room, where I could watch my breath form frosty puffs. I am sure my parents would have preferred to insulate the house better, but there was no cash for it. Next to the challenges of keeping us fed and housed during a recession and through their low-pay, early career years, my parents could not afford the strain – financial as well as emotional – of taking other steps to be more energy efficient.

It’s tempting to assign labels or catchphrases to movements. The concept of climate justice or environmental justice has gained massive traction in organizing groups, but as easy as it is to put “climate justice” on a banner, it’s even easier to lose sight of what it really means.

In previous years, environmental groups and social justice groups have operated independently. This has been to our detriment. We know from the many successes of coalition-building that we are stronger when we work together to achieve our goals. Together, we can achieve ecological justice, where our knowledge of how we manage community resources is applied to achieving environmental, economic, racial, and social justice.

This year, the frontline communities of the Oregon Just Transition Alliance (OJTA) are taking a central, leading role in the Portland People’s Climate Movement (PCM). We’re joining in solidarity, led by those who are most impacted by ecological injustice, to advance the Portland PCM Platform.

From 1974-1991 I worked on assembly lines at General Electric Appliance Park in Louisville, Kentucky. I hired in right at the end of the post WWII economic boom. In 1974 there were over 24,000 people working at Appliance Park. By 1991 that number had shrunk to about 6,000. Like many at the low end of the seniority list, I had a wild ride in and out of GE due to business cycle boom and bust, robots, outsourcing, and production shifts from one GE factory to another.

The last time I was called back from a layoff, I worked on a refrigerator compressor line, testing for leaks before they filled the system with Freon. This was in the late 1980s while the Montreal Protocol to Protect the Ozone Layer was being negotiated. Of course, Freon, an efficient and safe-to-handle refrigerant, was also the most prominent ozone-depleting chemical. It was disorienting to know this and to experience the nearly total silence on the issue at work. Once it was clear that Freon had to be replaced, GE claimed it had to redesign certain components and retool some of the manufacturing process. The company challenged the union to meet or beat what it would cost to make those parts somewhere else. The union kept the work but with a plan that used fewer workers. By that time, I had moved on to the washer/dryer building, been laid off yet again, moved back to Massachusetts where I grew up, and gone back to school. Read more

https://350pdx.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/350PDX-head-logo-bcm-wide-300x68.png00Dragonhttps://350pdx.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/350PDX-head-logo-bcm-wide-300x68.pngDragon2016-04-24 22:19:182016-08-09 15:24:49The Roots and Shoots of Just Transition

In an era in which our political system is dominated by plutocracy, grassroots social movements are essential for progressive change. But too often our movements find themselves at loggerheads over the seemingly conflicting need to preserve our environment and the need for jobs and economic development. How can we find common ground?

Join the next Fossil Fuels Resistance Team meeting! In order to stop the climate crisis from getting worse, we have to keep the remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground. The Pacific Northwest is currently[...]

Please join us at 6:30 for a sociable, scrumptious dinner potluck – an item to share is welcome but NOT required. Meeting starts at 7:00. Both are in the Cascadia Co-housing dining room, 4377 SW 94th Ave, Portland, OR 97225. Childcare[...]

Do you live in Washington County and want to get involved with climate justice actions near you? Come to the next meeting of 350 Washington County, a local chapter of 350.org, an international organization dedicated[...]

Join the next Fossil Fuels Resistance Team meeting! In order to stop the climate crisis from getting worse, we have to keep the remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground. The Pacific Northwest is currently[...]

Neighborhood-based teams make attending meetings easier and allow us to better develop strong community… in our local quadrant! We’re excited to be able to work closely with neighbors towards a fossil fuel-free future, and we[...]

Join the next Fossil Fuels Resistance Team meeting! In order to stop the climate crisis from getting worse, we have to keep the remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground. The Pacific Northwest is currently[...]

Do you live in Washington County and want to get involved with climate justice actions near you? Come to the next meeting of 350 Washington County, a local chapter of 350.org, an international organization dedicated[...]

Join the next Fossil Fuels Resistance Team meeting! In order to stop the climate crisis from getting worse, we have to keep the remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground. The Pacific Northwest is currently[...]

Please join us at 6:30 for a sociable, scrumptious dinner potluck – an item to share is welcome but NOT required. Meeting starts at 7:00. Both are in the Cascadia Co-housing dining room, 4377 SW 94th Ave, Portland, OR 97225. Childcare[...]

Neighborhood-based teams make attending meetings easier and allow us to better develop strong community… in our local quadrant! We’re excited to be able to work closely with neighbors towards a fossil fuel-free future, and we[...]